This invention relates to the field of highway safety devices. More particularly, this new invention is an improvement for the standard highway safety triangles. A device is presented which is readily attachable to standard safety highway triangles and which provides increased illumination.
With the advent of high speed travel by cars and trucks, a number of new and sometimes hazardous conditions have been created. Among the most hazardous of these conditions is caused when a car or truck breaks down and must be repaired or abandoned at or near the side of the highway. A number of devices have been devised which give oncoming motorists an early warning as to the road hazard created by such a breakdown or accident.
Among the types of warning devices commonly is use are standard highway safety triangles. These safety triangles include a lower base and an upper, frequently collapsible, triangular-shaped device. The triangle is now known in common use as a safety warning or hazard warning signal. In many states it is a legal requirement that trucks be equipped with such deployable warning triangles for use during a breakdown or accident to warn oncoming drivers of the approaching hazard.
It is not unknown in this field to use reflectors that enhance the visibility of the safety warning triangles once they are deployed. Many triangles contain reflector devices or reflecting tape that would reflect the oncoming vehicle""s headlights in the triangular pattern thus illuminating the triangle.
Other approaches to increasing the visibility of these warning triangles include illuminating the triangles along the three sides.
One such illuminated triangle is found in the 1997 patent issued to Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,309. The Smith device includes a series of lights within the three sides of the triangle.
Special warning lights have been designed to be placed along the three sides of the warning triangle. One such set of warning lights located within the three sides of the triangle are found in the 1994 patent issued to Wu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,346. One drawback of illuminating the three sides of the warning triangle only is that the visibility of the triangle is only minimally enhanced in poor or adverse lighting conditions. It is an object of this invention to provide a traffic warning triangle whose visibility has been greatly enhanced.
Other approaches to increasing the visibility of traffic safety triangles include the use of small lights or reflectors located within the interior of the traffic warning triangle. One such light is found in the 1989 patent issued to Chou for a warning triangle, U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,028. Chou involves an inner triangular surface which is illuminated by two small lightbulbs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,910, issued to Straten, provides a warning triangle for motor vehicles including a central reflector 13 and a lower illuminated distance marker.
While Chou and Straten are an improvement over the non-illuminated safety warning triangles, they still do not provide a sufficient high visibility warning light capable of alerting an oncoming driver of a dangerous road condition at a great distance. It is another object of this invention to provide a highly visible illuminated flashing or strobing light capable of warning an oncoming driver of a hazardous condition at a great distance from the hazard location.
Another drawback of the standard improvements to traffic warning triangles is the need for most of the triangles that are illuminated to be attached to a power source. Some of these warning triangles are powered from the cigarette lighter power source located in the vehicle. Once such example of such an electrified warning device is found in the 1989 Chou patent. However, because these illuminated traffic safety triangles must be connected to the automobile itself, deploying the triangle at a distance of more than ten or fifteen feet from the automobile is difficult due to the limitations of the length of the cord. It would be preferable to have an illuminating warning device capable of being placed at a distance of fifty feet or more from the automobile. Such a warning device must have an independent power source. It is a still further object of this invention to provide a highly visible illuminated traffic warning triangle having an independent power source such that the entire warning device can be located at least fifty feet or more from the actual hazard.
While many of the devices previously known in the art improve over the ordinary reflector, there is a need in the industry to provide a highly visible traffic warning device which immediately draws the oncoming driver""s attention to the location and existence of the traffic hazard. It would also be beneficial to the industry if a device were presented which could be added on to existing non-illuminated traffic warning signals to fully illuminate the composite device. This new illumination improvement would have to be adaptable to be attached to existing traffic warning triangles.
It would also be highly desirable if the new attachable device would strobe or blink so as to make the entire device much more visible and so as to attract the oncoming driver to the approaching hazard. It is a still further object of this invention to provide an improvement to existing traffic warning triangles that is readily attachable to the interior of the triangle and which provides a highly visible strobing or flashing light. Further and other objects of this invention will become apparent upon reading the below described Specification.
A standard, collapsible traffic warning triangle has two upper legs and a lower leg having a base. The three legs form an equilateral triangle having a horizontal lower base. The lower base has a vertical flange. The new improvement presented herein includes an illumination frame having an upper section for attaching a strobing or flashing light source, and a lower attaching section adapted to be received by the upper flange of the lower base of the standard warning triangle. The lower section of the illumination frame is designed such that it may be attached to the vertical flange of the lower leg of the highway triangle, either by means of inwardly biased legs, staggered teeth or clips. A strobing or flashing illumination light unit having an independent power source may be attached to the upper portion of the frame by magnetic or other attaching means. The illumination frame and light unit is readily adapted to be removably attached to the standard highway safety triangles now in use.